During a Monday, April 29 appearance on MSNBC’s “Katy Tur Reports,” Representative and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said that, if the Democrats manage to win both houses of the legislature and the White House in 2024, they will proceed to do away with the filibuster in order to legalize abortion across America.
As background, the filibuster is a rule in the Senate by which a speaker or group of speakers can continue speaking for so long as they are able in order to delay or potentially torpedo the legislation, as the Senate requires a 60-vote majority to end debate and vote on a bill. As neither party frequently has a 60-vote supermajority in the Senate, the tactic is an effective tool for stopping legislation.
However, the filibuster is only a rule, not enshrined in the Constitution, so technically, it can be done away with when the Senate approves its rules for the two-year Congress. While it has been kept more or less intact up until now, Rep. Pelosi is saying that it could be done away with if the Democrats have the votes to do so.
Speaking to Katy Tur about that on MSNBC, Pelosi introduced the topic by arguing that abortion is a “democracy” issue, saying, “People have to view abortion as a democracy issue. This is about freedom to make your own decisions for a woman. It’s a personal decision, it’s an economic decision at the kitchen table of America’s families, if and when they could expand their families or even start their families.”
Tur then asked her if abortion would be a motivating factor at the ballot box in this year’s election, asking, “Do you think it’s going to be a more powerful issue at the ballot box this time around?” Pelosi then claimed that there would be a “national abortion ban” if Republicans win, saying, “Well, it is because the fact is that no matter what he says, there will be a national abortion ban, and that would be horrible for our country.”
Former President Trump, for reference, said that abortion is an issue that should be left to the states now that Roe was done away with, not legislated upon by Congress. So, unless the party can somehow both convince him otherwise and scrape up the votes to pass a national ban, Pelosi’s fear-mongering hypothetical is likely incorrect.
In any case, she used that hypothetical to claim that Democrats “have to win,” saying, “We have to win it all. We have to win the White House, with our great president of the United States, Joe Biden, who has a vision for America that is in keeping with the vision of our founders, the sacrifice of our men and women in uniform, the aspirations of our children and their families.”
That’s when Pelosi introduced the idea of demolishing the filibuster. Tur asked her, “If President Biden gets reelected and there’s a Democratic House and a Democratic Senate, what can President Biden do to protect abortion nationwide?” She said, “We can enshrine into the law Roe v. Wade.” Tur noted, “That would take two-thirds in the Senate.” Pelosi then brought up getting rid of the filibuster, saying, “No it doesn’t. It’s 60 votes is the Senate now but if we win 50-plus-1 in the Senate, 50 plus the vice president, we can overturn the 60-vote rule.” Tur said, “The filibuster” and Pelosi told her, “The filibuster and pass it with a 51-vote margin. That’s what we need to do.”
Watch Pelosi here:
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